Feature Narrative Film
TOTAL BUDGET
US $560,000
CONFIRMED FINANCING
US $220,000
CONTACTS
ihab@aanatfilm.com
+972 522324669
mail@marisameier.ch
+49 15787007884
After being sentenced to 12 years in prison, the Palestinian topographer Ibrahim faces his wife and son for the first time in years. While society celebrates him as a hero, a freed prisoner who carries the grief of a nation, he and his family have to cope with the fact that he has become a broken, distrusting man, whose only chance of happiness lies in a new beginning.
Ibrahim, a Palestinian topographer is sentenced to 12 years in prison. His wife Amal bravely builds up her own business as a wedding videographer to make a living. Another tragedy hits the family when the couple loses their only child Wasef in a car accident. As many other prisoner-families they smuggle Ibrahim’s sperm out of the prison. The artificial insemination works and Amal gives birth to their second child Yousef.
When Ibrahim is finally freed, he meets Yousef for the very first time. But instead of feeling relieved and free, Ibrahim finds it hard to adapt. Daily routine has changed, as has the way people deal with occupation. He feels useless next to Amal, who provides for the family now. He is haunted by the loss of Wasef, whom he never could say goodbye to. He projects his late memory on Yousef but he cannot find any resemblance. A sinister doubt grows inside of Ibrahim: Is he actually Yousef’s father? Ibrahim built himself a prison of doubt he can’t be freed of. He gets aggressive and harsh when Amal and Yousef are not willing to let him destroy the family they exhaustingly built up during his absence.
The Doubt is the story of a character that has been roaming in my head for a couple of years now. The character of Ibrahim, who is inspired by my own father. When my father came out of prison he was a completely different person to me, not as warm and close as he used to be. As a child I used to imagine that this man is not my real father but someone who is inhabiting my father’s body, and will soon unmask himself to reveal his true identity.
In The Doubt it’s the father that suspects his own identity. He questions his fatherhood, the connection to his son. It’s not a coincidence that during the development and preproduction I myself became a father for the very first time. Therefore I am beginning to understand what this role takes, what it means and how it is changing me.
The movie will be shot in Beit Safafa, a small and beautiful village in the southwest hills of Jerusalem, where my family has lived for generations. It was here at home when the first moving images took shape in my head. When I felt out of place and desired a refuge I would go to a local Israeli cinema not too far away. These are the fondest memories of my childhood and the beginning of my passion for filmmaking. It has always been a desire to shoot in Beit Safafa, where it seems so easy to feel at home yet so fragile, so it’s really hard to build one. It’s the perfect environment for the very personal story of The Doubt.
This project includes feelings, thoughts and visions I am carrying with me for a very long time. I now feel ready to carry out those visions and share it with an international audience.
When I met Ihab Jadallah in a bookstore in Jerusalem, I was already filled up to the brim with impressions of Palestine and stories that should be shared. The story of The Doubt left a bigger impact. I see a special potential in this project; the journey of a man, who becomes homeless in an emotional sense. I witnessed one of the longest prisoner strikes during the spring of 2017 and how Palestinian society celebrates freed prisoners as heroes.
When I met some of them, I realized that they often can’t live up to that image. It seems like another prison they are locked into. This drama needs to be shown on screen in a tragic but finally truthful way. The fact that prisoners smuggle their sperm to their wives became a common thing in Palestine. The Doubt deals with the relationship between those kids and their parents. We have seen Palestinian movies about sadness, anger, violence and walls. It’s about time we show another side of this country; the dramatic emotional story about a broken man alongside a strong woman. I got attached as the producer at Aanat Films. My connections to Europe will be helpful in funding the project internationally. Due to his earlier work and his participation in Torino Film and Sundance Lab (amongst others), Ihab is well known in the international co-production market. I strongly believe in the universal success of this movie because it works with classical dramaturgy and shows a never-seen world.
2018: Closing Time
2016: Genkingen – Ein Schwäbisches Volksmärchen
2016: Un état d’urgence
2015: Cornerstorys
2014: Ich zünd dir nen Mercedes an
2014: Out of the Wild (commercial)